20 Remarkable Things in 2020

 2020 has been a remarkable year, with many major events and a few interesting things. I wanted to summarize it during 2020, in hopes that not many more things will merit being added to the list. 

1. In January, Kobe Bryant died in a tragic helicopter crash. He, his daughter, coaches and more were flying in the LA area, through fog. It was a major loss to the sporting community, and to the Black community, because Kobe had been such an influential and positive figure. 

2. President Trump was impeached. 

3. The Novel Coronavirus spread from China to America and to the world. 

4. I got COVID-19 from the Coronavirus on March 11. Tested on 3/13, and confirmed it on 3/15. 

5. The economy was shut down to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, That shutdown is mostly ongoing. 

6. Joe Biden was selected as the Democratic Presidential candidate, winning the primary process with some influence from the DNC to dispatch Senator Bernie Sanders. Bernie was the people's choice of the Democrat base, and Kamala Harris was the first Democrat candidate to drop out of the race, even before the first primary vote was held. Senator Harris roasted VP Biden for his racist past and comments, but it did not endear her to Democrat primary voters or donors.

7. We got "Murder Hornets" which could sting humans to death. This creature was identified in Washington state, and its first victims were there. 

8. There were massive wildfires across California, Oregon and Washington, which burned millions of acres, and even were causing red sunsets as far east as Michigan. This was the result of poor forest management. 

9. My daughter graduated from GA Tech, but had a delayed ceremony in December due to COVID-19 shutdowns. 

10. We learned a new term: Social distancing. This is the process of staying more than 6 feet apart, to minimize or prevent the spread of Coronavirus. 

11. The Trump administration brokered a historic peace treaty between UAE and Israel. While the two were not at war, they now have normalized relations between the two states, opening up business, banking and travel between the two countries.

12. The Trump administration brokered a historic peace treaty between Bahrain and Israel.

13. The Trump administration brokered a historic economic treaty between Kosovo and Serbia. 

14. We have had more named Atlantic tropical storms than in any other year. 

15. President Trump garnered a higher percentage of Black voters, of Latino voters, and more votes than his first election, yet the election is marred with claims of fraud. 

16. In the third quarter of 2020, the American economy had a 33% GDP growth rate, equaling the past record for growth in America. 

17. As a result of Operation Warp Speed, two COVID-19 vaccines were developed and are in production as of November, and were distributed starting in December. Their effectiveness rates are both above 90%. 

18. Ammunition for guns has more than tripled in price since January, as of November, 2020. 

19. Kamala Harris was selected as the Democratic Party VP candidate. 

20. VP Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris prevailed in the 2020 general election. 

2020 GA Senate Runoff Post Mortem

This loss started a long time ago. First, Governor Kemp appointed Kelly Loeffler to the open seat without having the GA GOP team onboard. There were a few people hoping and waiting for that seat to open, especially Rep. Doug Collins. I suspect there was a financial benefit to Governor Kemp which helped him make her the choice to fill the seat. Second, the jungle Primary was a major problem, because it pitted Democrats and Republicans against each other for the seat, splitting the GOP vote. That lead to the runoff in the first place! Then, Rep. Doug Collins was not convinced not to get into the race for the rest of the unexpired Senate term, and his running against Senator Loeffler hurt them both in the general election. Third, the candidates ran as separate campaigns, rather than as a team, like Ossoff and Warnock did. The Democrat campaigns coordinated well together, with better results. Fourth, President Trump is also partly to blame, because his continual claims of election corruption dampened enthusiasm and trust in the election process. The lack of faith in the system may have been more damaging than the lack of enthusiasm, but who knows, and who would it matter? Fifth, President Trump trashed GA GOP folks including the Governor, the SoS, and others, on social media. That divided the party when it needed to be unified. It was a bad confluence of factors, and it took more than just one factor to cause this outcome. We have a lot of work to do to restore confidence, and rebuild the GA GOP.